It's been almost a year since we last spoke about Paramount's plans to sequelize the smash-hit 80's broad actioner Top Gun and it looked for a while like momentum had died but there's significant refuel on the film today. Variety reports that X-Men: First Class writers (well two of many) Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz have been hired to write the sequel but the real story is what they aren't reporting. There's no mention of Christopher McQuarrie who last year wrote the first script that Top Gun 2 was supposedly based on and there's no news on director Tony Scott who helmed the original and by all accounts was a main figure in pushing ahead with the sequel that he would also direct. So what happened? My guess would be McQuarrie wanted Tom Cruise's Maverick to return as a central character but Paramount weren't interested in the money it would cost to bring him back when they can just capitalise on the franchise name and instead star someone cheaper like Chris Pine or Chris Hemsworth. McQuarrie said last year;
There is no Top Gun 2 in which Maverick is not the starring role.
But Paramount never once said they were looking at bringing Cruise back. Last we heard Scott was travelling to New Mexico to scout the world that Top Gun has become today;
This world fascinated me, because its so different from what it was originally But, I dont want to do a remake. I dont want to do a reinvention. I want to do a new movie.
Im not waiting for a script. Im going to do my homework. Im going down to I think its Fallon, Nevada, down near New Mexico and its a whole different world now, Scott says. These computer geeks these kids play war games in a trailer in Fallon, Nevada and if we ever went to war or were in the Middle East or the Far East or wherever it is, these guys can actually fly drones. They are unmanned aircraft. They operate them and then they party all night.
So your guess as to what really is happening at Paramount is as good as ours. We do know of course Cruise is extremely loyal to McQuarrie who wrote Valkyrie and will write/direct him in One Shot next year and if he's gone, Cruise's interest may have too. Of course nobody is committed to anything just yet, all we know for sure is that Jerry Bruckheimer and David Ellison are producing, and there's new writers on board. Beyond that... we just don't know now.